DIELECTRICS
A dielectric is a non-conducting material which has the unique ability of preventing electrical conduction but is at the same time capable of absorbing electric charge. Indeed, it will carry on absorbing charge until its saturation capacity is reached, whereupon, if its power source is still connected and still trying to pour more electricity into it it will rupture and a path will be created through it for current to discharge. This phenomenon, called dielectric breakdown is most certainly to be avoided for it renders the solid material useless thereafter. If, however, before it ruptures the charge accumulated within the dielectric rises toward its saturation point and reaches a level of voltage higher than the voltage of the charging circuit, then the dielectric's voltage will discharge itself (just like a short circuit - very violently) back through the power source.
From the very earliest days of electronics discoverers such as Faraday, Maxwell, and Lord Kelvin found that dielectrics didn't merely insulate; and that even the humble Leyden jar condenser was found to hold significantly more electricity, surface area for surface area, than a flat-sheet condenser with air between it's sheets – because it had a dielectric of glass sandwiched between its electrodes. Dielectrics were found to exhibit what was then termed "elastic stress’ which enabled its structure to absorb unusually large quantities of charge.
Thomas Townsend Brown, the pioneer of electrokinetics, or as he called it the "electrogravitic’ effect, discovered that certain dielectrics perform much better when charged up at a slower rate of oscillation than others* and it was he who originally devised, in 1958, the science of "doping’ dielectric materials with higher-mass particles (the higher atomic-mass particles he used were lead oxide granules) to enhance the dielectric's electric charge absorption. To understand how this occurred, if you can imagine that such particles create "interfaces’ with the main structure of the dielectric and that opposite polarity charges accumulate at each side of those interfaces, then what Brown invented was a cluster of mini capacitors held inside the dielectric body (which in itself was connected inside a capacitor).
[* NOTE: TT Brown first patented this idea in 1928 (British 300,311), and in his US patent 1,974,483 of 1934 he wrote of the kinetic reaction he had discovered, "It is evident from consideration of [the figures] that any type of dielectric under the conditions revealed therein produces both direct and reactive forces as shown. These forces, however, are different with dielectrics of different physical characteristics and are roughly proportional to the massiveness."
Indeed, his research into 'massiveness' was a key element of Brown's work through to the 1950's. He wanted to continue the work of C.F.Brush, a physicist who had discovered certain anomalies between mass and gravity in certain materials, and had concluded that;
"the ratio of mass to weight is not the same for all kinds of matter, as has been supposed, and the mass-weight ratio is not constant even in the same kind of matter."
(For Brush's research see Proc. Amer. Philosophical Soc. Vol LIII (1914) p118; Vol LX (1921) p43; Vol LXI (1922) p167; Vol LXII (1923) p75; Vol LXIII (1924) p57; Vol LXIV (1925) p36; Vol LXV (1926) p207; Vol LXVII (1928) p105; Vol LXVIII (1929) p55. Journal of Franklin Inst. Vol. 206 (1928) p143. Physical Review Vol 31 (1928) p 1113 (abstract); Vol 35 (1930) p296 (associated abstract); Vol 37 (1931) p460 (associated abstract); Vol 38 (1931) p1920 (associated abstract) ).
As can be seen in his research papers "The Space Vehicle Program" (c. 1955) and in his papers on Electrohydrodynamics (c. 1960) Brown proposed to carry out an extensive research program into the electrogravitic effects of different dielectrics and indicated future production of new super-light alloys of high-mass low-weight aircraft metals (see TT Brown family website).
Unfortunately, Brown rarely wrote for scientific journals - he did have an article on his "gravitator" published in the "Science and Invention" journal of Aug 1929, (reprinted in "Nexus" magazine Aug-Sep 2000 p45), but none of his discoveries have really been explained in full detail in published form, although his use of dielectric doping can be found in his US patent 3,187,206 (see Electrokinetic page).]
Dielectric absorption is when the dielectric has a current applied to it, to polarize the structure of molecular interfaces of positive and negative charge, but when the applied current is reduced to nothing the positive charge, of the charge carriers, tends to move so slowly that for all intents and purposes they remain stuck, and so when the next "pulse’ of an electric charge comes in it compounds upon the previous unmoved charge, and so on and on, hence the accumulative effect which carries on pumping in more and more charge. (see Dielectrics P.J. Harrop (1972) pp71; Electrostatics – And Its Applications A.D.Moore (1973) p122; R.Kohlrausch Ann. Phys. Vol 91 (1854) p56-82, p179-214.)
Now dielectrics have been subdivided into non-polar, polar, paraelectric, and ferroelectric properties and it is better known now how dielectrics behave differently at various radio and higher frequencies (how their relative electric permittivity can be altered by these frequencies).
Patrick Flanagan, who as a physicist has on occasion worked with NASA on the Gemini space program and the US Navy, was a great admirer of TT Brown's discoveries and, indeed, he has also used dielectric materials doped with lead to create a high powered "electron cascade’ effect in his Electron Field Generator (US patent 4,743,275 (May 10, 1988)). Flanagan further discovered that if the doping was done with paramagnetic granules (of silicon carbide) then the electronic field effect of the dielectric was greatly increased.
Perhaps if a dielectric were doped with paramagnetic particles, as in the process of adding antimony or phosphorus (neg-dopants) or adding indium or boron (as pos-dopants) to insulating materials so as to make them into semiconductors to increase their yield ("Understanding Microwaves" Allan W. Scott (1993) pp138).
The coupling effect of the capacitive interfaces in a dielectric could be increased by adding free-electron yielding particles in a strong magnetic field (or like an electret in a strong electric field) so that the particles were aligned in parallel layers, as in the microscopic lattice of quartz, or as in the manufacturing processes used to make artificial dielectrics where on a macroscopic level minute metal strips, spheres or rods are configured into the dielectrics structure and spaced microwave widths apart (so as to amplify at specific oscillations) (See "Metallic Delay Lens" by W. E. Kock in "Bell System Tech Jrnl." (Jan 1948) vol 27 p58-82; "Antennas" by John D. Kraus (1988) p670) (and see note 40).